Green Bay Packers: NFL Nation Confidential: Franchise player

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Our latest NFL Nation survey asked players around the league to pick one player with whom they would start a franchise.

Nearly 13 percent of the players surveyed picked Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. While that doesn't sound like an overwhelming number for a former league MVP, the leading vote getter, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, tallied only 19.3 percent of the vote.

Keep in mind that most of the polling was done midway through the season, when Rodgers was sidelined because of his broken collarbone. In a fully healthy season, perhaps Rodgers would have garnered even more votes. Had this poll been conducted in 2011, when Rodgers was on the way to leading the Packers to a 15-1 regular season, he might have come in at the top of such a list.

The fact that more players chose the 37-year-old Manning and the 36-year-old Brady over Rodgers, 30, and Luck, 24, tells how players think -- they want to win now.